To Chef AJ about Calories in Non-Starchy Vegetables

In a presentation published on youtube, Chef AJ, who is certified in "Plant-Based Nutrition" from Cornell University, describes the concept of calorie density, promoting weight loss. She claims that you can eat as many of non-sweet fruit and other low in starch vegetables you want, because:

"...their mostly waner, and fiber and nutrients, you know, you actually spend more calories, chewing non-starchy vegetables and digesting them than in the calories."

My response:

Why every lecture like this must contain some nonsense? One hour chewing burns only ~10 food calories!

There is no scientific evidence to show that any vegetables or fruits have a zero or negative caloric impact.

Celery has a thermic effect - "the amount of energy expenditure above the resting metabolic rate due to the cost of processing food for use and storage" - of ~ 8%, much less than the 100% or more required for a food to have "negative calories". A large piece of celery provides almost 10 calories, but the body expends less than one calorie processing it.

Proteins require the most energy to digest but their a thermic effect is 20%–30% only. A commonly used estimate of the thermic effect of food is about 10% of one's caloric intake.

Chef AJ replied through her profile Wight Loss Wednesday:

After I provided a link to this article with explanation to a viewer who replied to me with ""chewing and digesting".. digestion does not come for free," Chef AJ responded to my comment as well. First she said:

I was talking about BMR.

Then she shared this link:

http://lethow.com/health/negative-calorie-foods/

In this article they just repeat the false information:

Consuming Negative calorie foods will burn more calories in chewing and digestion process as compared to the calories they provide for the body. Eating these foods will create a calorie-deficit in the body, ultimately helps in weight loss.

Towards the end they admit that:

Our body uses around 10-15% of calories of the food we eat, in order to digest them. Our body also needs energy to break down the food compound and absorb carbohydrates, proteins, minerals fats, and other nutrients. Our body generates energy from the food we intake.

But they also imply that much more energy is burned by absorption of food. After mechanical and chemical digestion, which require most energy to break the pieces and molecules of food down, they assume or try to make you believe that absorption through the small intestine into the blood would take more than 90% of the calories of these foods for the total to be negative! There is no known scientific foundation for such assumptions. It even goes against common sense to think that the mere absorption of broken down nutrients would require ~10 times more energy than actual breaking down, or to imagine that we could survive with such inefficient bodies. Even if this were true, nutrients from other foods would require similar amounts of energy to be absorbed.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the minimal rate of energy expenditure, usually per day or hour. The measurement requires a strict set of criteria to be met, which include being in a physically and psychologically undisturbed state, in a thermally neutral environment, and in the post-absorptive state (after the food is digested). I do not know what exactly Chef AJ was pointing towards here.

They also list most non-starchy vegetables and fruits as calorie-negative! How irresponsible. The site, which calls itself "the ultimate guide," does not list any links to their sources, of course. They don't even have about pare or sign their articles. This site looks like an advertisement project, with the content created entirely by paid-per-word copywriters.

As a fruitarian whose energy comes primarily from those fruits, I would be dead not only by now, but after any couple of month period in the last 20+ years.

These are the fruits and vegetables they list:

Fruits

Vegetables

Spices

Apples

Apricots

Blackberries

Cantaloupes

Cranberries

Grapefruit

Guava

Lemons

Oranges

Papayas

Peaches

Pineapples

Plums

Prunes

Raspberries

Strawberries

Tangerines

Tomatoes

Watermelon

Asparagus

Aubergine

Beets

Broccoli

Cabbage

Carrots

Cauliflower

Celery

Chicory

Cress

Cucumbers

Dandelion

Endive

Fennel

Green beans

Lettuce

Onions

Radishes

Spinach

Turnip

Zucchini

Anise

Cayenne

Chili peppers

Cinnamon

Cloves

Coriander/Cilantro

Cumin

Dill

Fennel seeds

Flax seeds

Garden cress

Garlic

Ginger

Parsley

Mustard seeds

Watercress

Please, don't believe just anyone on the internet, always check the information you rely upon.

Random Data

In man, physiological amounts of vitamin are absorbed by the intrinsic factor mediated mechanism exclusively in the ileum, the third portion of the small intestine. Human faeces contain appreciable quantities of vitamin B12 or vitamin B12-like material presumably produced by bacteria in the colon, but this is unavailable to the non-coprophagic individual. However, the human small intestine also often harbours a considerable microflora and this is even more extensive in apparently healthy southern Indian subjects. We now show that at least two groups of organisms in the small bowel, Pseudomonas and Klebsiella sp., may synthesise significant amounts of the vitamin.

Random Definition

Nutrient - a substance that provides essential nourishment for growth and the maintenance of life.

Foods are composed chiefly of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals. Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and water represent virtually all the weight of food. Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins comprise 90% of the dry weight of foods.